The Nordics of Orcas Island: The Real Aliens

Brent V. Friedman, born in 1962, is a veteran Hollywood writer and producer who has described himself as an experiencer. He is best known as co-creator, alongside Bryce Zabel, of the 1990s primetime NBC series Dark Skies. His other credits include work on Star Trek: Enterprise and multiple episodes of Star Wars.

In June 2026, Friedman and Bryce Zabel appeared on Jesse Michels’ American Alchemy in the episode Hollywood, The CIA & UFOs: The History Beyond Spielberg, which was published on June 20–21, 2026 and runs approximately three hours and forty-six minutes. The portion in which Friedman describes an encounter with a Nordic or Tall White-type being on Orcas Island occurs around the two hour, twenty minute mark.

According to Friedman, the incident took place while he was visiting a friend on a roughly twenty-acre wooded property on Orcas Island in Washington state’s San Juan Islands. He woke up one morning after his friend had gone to the store. It was a beautiful day, so he decided to take a walk alone on the property. While walking and coming over a ridge in an area where there had been no one around, he suddenly saw a tall, blonde man standing about twenty feet away, further down the hill. The individual looked like a male model, specifically like a Scandinavian male model, with longish blonde hair and what Friedman described as more European-style clothing. Friedman, who is six foot four, noted that the man appeared exceptionally well put together. The being spoke to him telepathically, as his mouth did not move, and said Hello Brent, which surprised Friedman because the man knew his name. Friedman responded verbally, and the being then told him to turn around and walk the other way in a non-threatening manner. Friedman turned and began walking away. After some distance he looked back and the figure had vanished. When his friend returned, Friedman described the strange experience, and his friend responded casually by asking if it had been one of those tall white people.

Friedman’s friend then provided additional context about these beings. In modern UFO discussions the terms Nordic and Tall White overlap. According to the friend, the beings maintain a gated compound on the island and arrive via unmarked black helicopters. Groups of approximately eight individuals visit periodically, roughly every couple of months, and stay for a couple of days at a time during periods of high energy in order to recharge. They are described as very private and selective about whom they interact with, and they generally do not intermingle with the local population.

The friend also recounted a local story from several years earlier in which one of these beings walked into a pub, ordered a drink, said he lived up the way, had a couple of drinks, and calmly told people he would walk home after locals helped him outside. Friedman stated that this was not just a good-looking man because of the telepathic communication and speculated that the being could have been a hybrid or an ultra-terrestrial, while also referencing broader theories that connect such beings to ideas about Atlantis or other hidden origins.

Orcas Island does have a longstanding reputation for unusual phenomena and spiritual energy. Local legends include Sasquatch sightings near Mountain Lake, the sea serpent known as Caddy, mysterious lights at Ghost Rock, claims of a portal in Mount Constitution, and an Atlantean energy vortex in East Sound. Older local descriptions place an energy vortex just off the shore from Eastsound beyond a small island in the bay near the Outlook Inn, which provides some context for the high energy periods mentioned in the story.

Accounts of interactions with Nordic or blonde-haired beings have appeared across many decades in UFO literature. These reports include early-life and childhood contact cases such as a 1974 Netherlands child witness, Jesse Long’s 1962 abduction, and Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera’s childhood encounters with tall, blond, blue-eyed beings. They also feature public witness cases such as Jessie Roestenberg’s 1954 Staffordshire sighting, William B. Squyres’ 1954 Massena encounter with telepathic blond humanoids and Joyce Bowles and Ted Pratt’s 1976 encounter with a tall, bearded blond figure. Major contactee and abduction accounts connected to the Nordic theme include George Adamski’s meeting with Orthon, Howard Menger’s human-looking visitors, Travis Walton’s shipboard encounter with blondish, human-like beings in blue uniforms, Peter Khoury’s physical-contact case involving a blonde female being, Antônio Villas-Boas’ encounter with a pale-haired female, Cynthia Appleton’s meeting with a tall blond figure using advanced visual technology, and César Locatelli’s observation of blond-haired figures in white robes.

Military and UFO crash-retrievals include Paul Hellyer’s comments about Tall Whites and Nordic Blondes, Charles Hall’s Tall Whites, the Dutton, Montana case, the WPAFB twin humanoid account, the Aztec bodies, the alleged 1933 Italy recovery, John Lear’s claim of preserved Nordic bodies, Alfred O’Donnell’s live-being claim, Ronald Garner’s story involving Edward Teller and Bill Uhouse, and William Tompkins’ account of a blond, blue-eyed being named Jessica assisting Apollo-era work. Together these examples show a recurring pattern in which Nordic-type beings are repeatedly described as tall, pale, blond or white-haired, often blue-eyed, human-looking, telepathic, technologically advanced, and sometimes connected to children, military programs, abductions, crash recoveries, or hidden cooperation with humans.

Friedman and Zabel were promoting their podcast Sound, Light & Frequency at the time of the interview. The show explores connections between Hollywood, UFOs, and possible government influence on public perception of the phenomenon, including their own experiences with Dark Skies.